Remote control of a web browser

Abstract

A system for remotely and interactively controlling visual and multimedia content displayed on and rendered by a web browser using a telephony device. In particular, the system relates to receiving a voice input (e.g., dual tone multi-frequency DTMF input, spoken input, etc.) from a telephony device (e.g., a landline, a cellular telephone, or other system with telephone functionality, etc.) via a wide-area network to an intermediary computer that is configured to control the rendering of one or more web pages (or other web data) by a standard web browser.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A computer system, comprising:
 one or more processors; and 
 memory storing program instructions executable by the one or more process to cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:
 sending a web page for display via a display device; 
 establishing a call with a telephony device via a voice communications channel over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network, wherein the call is established while the web page is being displayed via the display device and the voice communications channel is different from a data traffic channel; 
 authenticating the telephony device; 
 receiving, during the call, a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) input from the telephony device via the voice communications channel; 
 rendering, during the call, a modified version of the web page based at least partly on the input; 
 sending, during the call, the modified version of the web page for display via the display device; 
 receiving, during an additional call, an identifier of a user of the telephony device; 
 retrieving, from a database, information about the user; 
 selecting advertising content based at least partly on the information about the user; 
 rendering a web page that includes the advertising content; and 
 
 sending the web page to an additional display device. 
 
     
     
       2. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving, during the call, a code from the telephony device; and 
 associating, after receiving the code, the code with a browser session identifier corresponding to the display of the web page via the display device to establish a server-browser connection that enables control of the web page by the telephony device. 
 
     
     
       3. The computer system of  claim 2 , wherein the code is a numeric code. 
     
     
       4. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein authenticating the telephony device includes retrieving information about a user of the telephony device from a database. 
     
     
       5. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving, during the call, an identifier from the telephony device; 
 determining that the identifier corresponds to the display device; and 
 selecting the display device from among a number of display devices. 
 
     
     
       6. The computer system of  claim 5 , wherein the identifier is utilized to authenticate the telephony device. 
     
     
       7. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein the input corresponds to filling in a form included in the web page. 
     
     
       8. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 providing audio information to the telephony device, the audio information corresponding to content of the web page and the audio information includes at least one of text of the web page or a description of a picture of the web page. 
 
     
     
       9. The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising a database storing information corresponding to a plurality of web pages, wherein individual web pages of the plurality of web pages are stored in association with one or more respective search keys that correspond to one or more DTMF inputs; and
 wherein the operations further comprise: 
 receiving, during the call, at least one DTMF input from the telephony device; 
 identifying an additional web page stored in the database based at least partly on the at least one DTMF input and at least one search key associated with the web page; and 
 sending the additional web page to the display device. 
 
     
     
       10. A method comprising:
 rendering first content, the first content includes a web page including an advertisement and; 
 sending the first content for display via a first display device, and wherein the first content is displayed on the display device for a first period of time; 
 establishing a call with a telephony device via a wide area network after sending the first content for display via the first display device, the wide area network includes a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network, or a cellular network; 
 receiving, during the call, input from the telephony device, the input being related to the first content, the input includes voice input or dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) input; 
 rendering, during the call, second content based at least partly on the input; 
 sending, during the call, the second content for display via a second display device, the second display device being included in a housing of the telephony device and the first display device being external to the housing of the telephony device; 
 sending additional content to an additional display device, the additional content including an image of an additional advertisement and the additional content being displayed on the additional display device for a second period of time; 
 sending the first content to the additional display device such that the first content is displayed on the additional display device for a third period of time subsequent to the second period of time; and 
 sending the additional content to the first display device such that the additional content is displayed on the first display device for a fourth period of time subsequent to the second period of time. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 accessing information of an entity that created the advertisement; and 
 establishing a call between the telephony device and an additional telephony device of the entity using the information of the entity.